Knowing the Providential template for creating a garden, there is still the job of 'taking'.

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Creativity.

Creativity is honored, deeply, everyday of my life. It is a tool to use. I do not own the tool, merely allowed to partake of its precious gift. Daily. Honored. This tool is kept working, with having pets, books, music, walking in Nature most days, having my own garden, colors/furnishings/art/comfort of my home, meals with the pleasure of choosing plates/silver/tray/linen napkin eating in the bay window or conservatory or potager, deep friendships with girlfriends, knowing to get out of my comfort zone every few months, travel/seeing new things, gratitude in Providence, and Beloved.
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Creativity.
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I lost it once, decades ago, not knowing it needed nurturing. Remember, well, feeling its loss. Not the loss of Providence, exactly, but the loss of a great gift from Providence I had not honored. Never want to go there again. It's not uncommon for issues to arise, needing attentions subtracting from honoring my creativity. I don't go there, the answer will be, 'no'.

Seeing, deeply, the creativity of others delights my soul and feeds the muse. In Jamaica, a few days ago, investigating the restaurant while our meal was cooking, above, I was given a gift. Looking up from our table, below.

Better, below, walking on the beach were these 'chairs' and table. The table was obvious, but I had to investigate the 'chairs'.

At waters edge, and going nowhere, these chairs are perfect, and they were free. For the creativity.

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Are you faster than I was? My brain was molasses for a few seconds, figuring out the 'chairs'.

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Bird bath pedestals buried in sand, with a ring of concrete added to the tops.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

If this homeowner is in Garden Club they're a perfect venue for a monthly meeting.

There must be someone who knows all these tools and could speak about their proper use, name, era, what the earlier/later versions were, what types of wood they are made from, how the metal was forged, which parts are handmade vs. machine made, how many decades of use they encountered, which crops each tool could help with, which parts of the country they were most widely used, what is their derivation from the European counterpart, & etc.

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Each tool, silent witness to greatness.

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Pulling Earth's bounty to our benefit.

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The action feeding mind, body, spirit.

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Perhaps this is the great metaphor from Providence, personally pulling Earth's bounty. We don't work the tools they work into us every good thing.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Heading off to any trip Beloved has learned he must say, "We are not going into any museums." Luff me a local museum. Guess who always says, "I'm glad we came in this museum."

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Asked to lecture at a huge symposium for Atlanta Botanical Garden, they gave the title, Tools. Honored to be asked, via phone this was pre-internet, I hung up in sinking fear. What did I just do? How can I speak for an hour about tools?

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

You've seen dozens of old tool bouquets on toiles across the span of your life.

Old tools in my garage are ladies-in-waiting.

Think this bit of garden is serendipitous? Unplanned? Needs weeding? A trinity of wrong. This garden room is rustic balance with its formal companions nearby.
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Garden Design is all about contrasts. And finding a way to hang lovely old tools.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics shot in Susanne Hudson's garden last month. Seems old tools, old terra cotta & old tin are a new trinity.

Puppet Barbuda KNOWS no one reading this has ugly plant supports (costing real $$$) with green plastic ties (costing more $$$). Once, shopping at the Handy Ace Hardware in Tucker, GA I hit the brown twine/jute lottery. As they stocked shelves with product from China its jute twine was tossed aside as trash. Puppet Barbuda was quickly on her knees, gathering her treasure.

Antique wicker hampers hold office supplies along with staking flags, measuring tapes, tools & etc.... Tess is no slouch, she's already brought home rescued windows (from century old craftsman bungalow) to be used in my new conservatory. Ha, I'm working Tess hard & loving every moment.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Poppets, you must understand, somehow Providence had me driving a car for a decade. Most likely to give other junking women fairer odds against my dumpster diving skills. They are prodigious. Alas, not always a good thing. A voice in my head, "Bi-annual garden sale." We'll see.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Rescued sink, "champagne is on ice in the conservatory", & stand made from leftover structural pieces, century old rescued pine. Rescued culvert, above, has a new life, & the rescued chest, windows, shutter.

You will not believe what this Garden Room looks like. Can't wait to show you the money shot, soon poppets ! Alert, this garden room built solely with the labor of 1 man & 2 women. None labeled 'young' in contemporary culture. Ha, young in what we create. Please, let us create a Garden Room for YOU. It's all we wanna do. Oh dear, this snippet is turning into the lines of a country song......... ta-ta before it gets worse.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Susanne Hudson, a year ago, asked me to build a garden with her for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. I knew then it must be a Garden Room..We Field Gathered over 95% of the Garden Room. The roll, below, know what it is? Jute erosian control fabric. Can you guess how we used it? Disgusting 1980's French doors, from the dump, turned into something fabulous, below.

Our wagon, below, filled with a foray behind the barn.

Pine timbers, below, from a factory torn down in Atlanta, about a century old.

A good man for this project was unspoken, below. Notice, we did not think 'crew of men'. Notice, too, more Field Gathering: old wheelbarrow, bed frame, & altar table on its side. But you already saw that yesterday. Oooh-la-la, notice the old bathroom sink in the Tara Turf?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Lovely rose arbor, below, yes? It came from a dumpster..Susanne Hudson saw a commercial awning tossed into a dumpster. She called the building's owner immediately, asking if she could have the discarded awning..Next, she called a fence company to place 8' fence posts..The awning was placed forming a complete 1/2 round instead of its intended 1/4 round..Voila...rose arbor with hanging lanterns..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pic taken 2 weekends ago. I've been in Monet's garden and know Susanne's rose arbor is little different from his in drama. What could be better? Do you have the eye?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A board, mirror, old tools. Each a rescue. What would you do? Susanne Hudson made this, above, mirror. Hung on an outside wall of her carriage house..I'm 'not crafty' in the least but a mirror I was given & old tools are in my garage (carriage house!).Continuing with the 'not crafty' fact, I see pine cones on the mirror frame too. Hmm, a glue gun needed. AND, in season I see fresh hydrangea blossoms tucked into the tools & pine cones around the mirror. And, in season camellias................roses...............tea olive................gardenia.................hosta/fern foliage................hellebores.............daffodils. .Wouldn't that be interesting, collecting a year's pics of the garden mirror?.Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Cobbled together with more rescued bits this greenhouse is instantly charming.

Testament to a woman's growing love, fascination, passion for cacti.

Inside, above, refrigerator shelving + old windows creating a roof.

Attached to the house the greenhouse only needs 3 sides. Above, one side.

Above, the other side. A free greenhouse !! Not your style? Paint it.

Inside. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. Something about greenhouses does it for me. Neat, messy, empty, full, being in a greenhouse has always melted my heart. Each one, no matter its condition, a life force. Telling me stories. And the smell. Oh my, the smell of a greenhouse. I would buy the perfumes.

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Shopping at Born Again Antiques, spottedsheep@hotmail.com, 304 East Main Street, Hogansville, GA 30230, 404-422-8504, last week for my garden, Allan Boyer, co-owner, said his wife, BJ Boyer, filled the front window with her cacti during winter. A come-on line if I ever heard one. Within 15 minutes I was walking with BJ, & her newest dog, into her garden. BJ makes new antiques by cobbling together broken antiques. The woman has got an eye. (This is not an ad for them, I am simply passing along a very interesting, fun place. Maybe you can go?)